Sunday, November 1, 2009

Tickling Elmo

My girlfriend has told me a story many times that I never get tired of hearing. It happened about six years ago when she was at her mother’s house. They had a little white poodle named Pierre, which they had gotten at an animal shelter in their little town many years earlier. At the time of this story, Pierre was getting old and moved slowly; pretty much an elderly man in the life-spectrum of a dog.

My girlfriend was getting ready for bed and turned off the lights in her room. As soon as it went dark, she heard a voice inside her room saying, “Oooh, that tickles, do it again. Oooh, that tickles, do it again.” She was startled and a little frightened and instantly turned on the lights looking around the side of the bed to where she thought the voice coming from, and there she saw Pierre mounting the motion-activated Tickle Me Elmo stuffed animal at a feverish pitch.

Pierre had a predisposition towards mounting things; mostly stuffed toys and other small dogs. My girlfriend and her mother had repeatedly tried to discourage this behavior in him. On this particular evening, Pierre had evidently spotted the Tickle Me Elmo and waited for the lights to go out before making his move unaware that Elmo would not be silent on the matter.